1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a device environment configuration system, a device environment configuration method, and a data storage medium recording the same. More particularly, the invention relates to a device environment configuration system, to a device environment configuration method, and to a data storage medium recording the device environment configuration method for displaying in an easily readable manner device profiles included in the system configuration information managed by the operating system (OS) based on how the devices are connected within the system configuration.
2. Description of Related Art
A multifunction POS (point-of-sale) system can be assembled without the user being aware of the makes and models of devices in the POS system configuration by using a standard Application Program Interface (API) to develop an application providing the POS system functions. OPOS (OLE for Retail POS) is an international standard defining a standard interface for devices (such as printers and displays) used in the POS terminals of a POS system (referred to below as a POS terminal system). An OPOS standard object uses OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) control supported by the Windows (R) OS used on the host devices of the POS system to provide application developers with a set of API functions that make application development easier.
The information needed to use OPOS, that is, information about all of the devices in the POS terminal system and settings for all of the devices (referred to below as the OPOS device environment configuration settings), is stored in a database (referred to below as a registry) of system configuration information managed by the Windows OS. This registry is a database for centrally managing all settings related to computer operation, including all device driver settings and application settings. Device information including a device identifier and various settings stored in the registry as part of the OPOS device environment configuration settings is referred to below as the device information or the device profile. In other words, the OPOS device environment configuration settings include device information for each device in the system configuration.
A registry editor, utility software for editing the registry, is typically used to save OPOS device environment configuration settings for a device in the POS terminal system to the registry. The Windows OS provides a registry editor utility, called regedit.exe, for this purpose.
The registry editor, however, only provides simple basic functions. This makes editing the OPOS device environment configuration settings for each device in the POS terminal system and saving the settings to the registry a cumbersome, time-consuming task. More specifically, it is difficult to edit and save the OPOS device environment configuration settings while also considering the configuration of all other devices in the POS terminal system. Yet further, it is difficult to determine and confirm the appropriateness of the edited OPOS device environment configuration settings so that the appropriate settings can be saved in the registry. It is also difficult to edit and save the OPOS device environment configuration settings with consideration for how the different devices in the POS terminal system are connected to each other.
As noted above the registry is a central database of system configuration information managed directly by the OS, making it difficult for someone without sufficient knowledge to edit the registry. Furthermore, inappropriately changing registry content could render the OS, applications, or devices unusable or interfere with normal operation. Inadvertently changing data other than the OPOS device environment configuration settings could also cause problems with the system.